


'Twas The Night Before Christmas

by Lafrenze



Series: The Tender Tale Which Flowers Reveal [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, POV Second Person, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Reader-Insert, florist!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-09
Updated: 2015-01-09
Packaged: 2018-03-06 19:04:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3145190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lafrenze/pseuds/Lafrenze
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the last day before Christmas, and if anyone expected peace and quiet they were probably in the wrong house. Thankfully, Steve wouldn't expect anything less from the family that brought you up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Twas The Night Before Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> My God, I'm done finally. I know I promised this by Christmas, and I honestly tried, but this thing became a freaking monster. It's easily the largest single chapter piece I've written and I simply could _not_ leave anything out. Chapter five of the main story will be out eventually, but I'm going to take a few days off from writing because I need the R &R. I suppose it behooves you to know that this is a time-skip chapter, taking place some time after the inevitable engagement that will happen at some point (just not in SWBTF because that's going to wrap up much sooner). This is only very loosely proofread, I just need a break from it right this second. I'll go back over it eventually and clean it up a bit. And now, please enjoy and let me bid you a very belated Merry Christmas.

The whole house was filled with the low roar of mirthful chattering and people moving about to and fro in never-ending activity as Steve re-entered the home, tenuously carrying a box of wrapped gifts. He'd volunteered to help your father gather and hide the presents for the young children, all of them from 'Santa'. The boxes were destined for a closet in the laundry room for the time being, as the kids were fortuitously kept busy outside, and later this very night, after everyone else returns home, or in several cases to their hotels, your uncle would arrange the presents under one of the two Christmas trees to be 'discovered' in the morning. The adults had one tree, although that meant more for decoration than anything, with the stack of presents under it going to and coming from family, kids included. A second tree had been decorated by all the children present, with paper ornaments and popcorn garlands lovingly crafted by the youngsters themselves, placed strategically near the fireplace, whose mantle was strung with stockings.

In truth, the whole event was new ground for Steve. Previously, Christmas had always been a quiet holiday, spent between home and church. Bucky was always included, even during his years in foster care, and up until her passing, his mom was too. He liked it that way, though; holiday movie marathons and take-out might never be a proper, traditional way to celebrate, but those were the things his fondest memories were made of. A celebration like this seemed natural for you, however. Ever since the first Christmas he'd known you, you'd made no effort to disguise how much you enjoyed this time of year. Not a woman who did things in halves, your Christmas started the second Thanksgiving was over and lasted well into January. As your lives entwined, you brought with you that same exuberant cheer, dragging him out with your caroling group, going ice skating with him, and taking him out to all sorts of holiday plays and concerts. None of this was to say that the only time you spend together was busy, Steve recalled scores of times spent in one of your apartments, napping on a couch after running about town, or watching whatever holiday movie was on while curled up next to him.

And though you'd done all of these same things this year, it wasn't quite like the last. This was the second year in a row that your whole family was able to get together for the holidays and like the previous year you had invited him. The difference was that the two of you were engaged, to his infinite joy, but it meant he didn't have a good reason to decline, which he had only done prior because he wasn't going to just leave Bucky alone. Your solution was elegant in it's simplicity; you called up Bucky and invited him, although he found out that was the plan from the beginning. “You two are basically brothers with different mothers, which makes him family too, ya know,” were your exact words when he asked you about it later. So the two of them piled in your rental car and headed with you up to Maine for a vacation. You stuck around to introduce everyone, but you'd disappeared shortly after. Steve got caught up in helping with presents, but now that he was done, he was hoping to find you.

When he reached the kitchen, Steve found Bucky, who was currently helping two of your cousins, Martha and Jane, roll and stamp out cookies. One of your aunts, whose name he simply couldn't recall, was baking those same cookies off, several sheets at a time, and it was easy to see why the whole house smelled like a bakery.

“Are you looking for something?” she asked upon noticing him, direction Bucky's attention right over.

“Sorry Stevie, we got enough taste-testers.” Before he could finish, Bucky was forced to dodge a cloud of flour tossed his way by Jane, who began giggling at his expense. Steve explained to them that he was looking for where you'd gone off to.

“Oh, she's out back, watching the kids. If you're going to go join her, take your coat out with you.”

***

Despite knowing that it was cold outside, nothing quite prepared Steve for just how bitterly frigid the weather was. The blanket of snow on the ground was churned up and uneven, torn up by footprints. On one end of the yard was a tall, well-packed wall of snow. At the other end was a series of mounds made of snow, in the tallest of them was a half-buried plastic Santa. Suddenly, four kids burst out from behind the snow wall, screaming and carrying plastic and foam swords. You popped out from behind the piles of snow and began launching a barrage of snowballs with a roar.

“Give Santa back!” one of the girls shouted at you. She had curly black hair and her toy sword was from a child's pirate costume.

Ceasing in your icy assault, you narrowed your eyes and brought your gloved hands down on your perch. “He can be restored when you wrest him from my claws, knightling. Until then the Christmas Saint is mine, and mine alone, along with his holy magic,” you said, voice thick with an added growl. For added effect, you made sure to breathe heavily through your nose, creating thick puffs of steam.

“It's gonna be Christmas soon, let Santa go!” the lone boy of the group called out at you.

Your reply was interrupted by the sound of footfalls crunching through the snow. Startled, you turned to see who was approaching, and immediately upon spotting Steve your practiced scowl fell away, replaced by giddy surprise. “Oh! Time out, real quick! So what brings you out here? Is it dinnertime already?”

“Not yet. I was just looking for you. You vanished earlier, and your aunt said you were out here,” he replied. “What're you doing?”

“She kidnapped Santa and now we have to save him,” said the eldest, a girl with bright, brown eyes.

“We're playing Knights and Dragon. As you can tell, I'm the dragon 'cause I'm the biggest. I've taken Santa so I can force him to make me everything I want. They're trying to slay me and rescue him so he can deliver presents tonight. Between you and me, I only took Ol' Nick because the reindeer are plugged in, Frosty's inflatable, and there was no way I was gonna kidnap someone from the Nativity.” You paused a beat to think, and realized that you'd forgotten something. “I never told you their names, did I? This Jay, Kinzie, Maria, and Vanessa. If you're done helping inside, why don't you join us?”

Steve didn't stand a chance against the sheer amount of hopeful expectancy you leveled at him. If you had a tail, he was certain you'd be able to hover with it right about now. Even though he would rather be inside where it was nice and warm, there was no way he could turn you down. “Sure, I'd love to join you.” The cheer you let out when he said that was affirmation enough that he'd made the right choice.

“But Auntie, we're out of swords,” Maria said with concern, pointing her toy weapon at a plastic tub sitting on the patio.

“Hm, that is a problem.” You stroked your chin thoughtfully, as though you had a beard. “We still have shields though, he could use one of those. He could be... your guard captain! Yeah, that'd be perfect! Kin, can you please grab one of the spare shields for Uncle Steve?”

“Mm-hm!” she replied, dashing off to do just that. The other three children looked at Steve.

“So, what's a guard captain do?” Jay asked.

“Well, I can use my shield to keep you safe from the dragon,” Steve replied kindly. “And I can help you plan to defeat her and save Santa. How's that?”

The children let out a shout of agreement just as Kinzie returned with a moderately large, plastic kite shield. Patchy streaks of red and blue paint were left of the light gray plastic, making it obvious that it was an old staple of the toy box.

“Okay, so, new rules everybody. Because you have a guard, I'm going to say you can only take two hits before you have to run back and tag your base. Steve gets four direct hits, and all snowballs that hit the shield are blocked and don't count. If Steve loses his hits and has to retreat, the four of you can decide on your own if you want to go with him or press on unguarded. Only once all five of you have safely made it to my base and touched the mountain can you challenge me directly and pick a fight. Your hits are reset at this point, but you still take the same amount. I take ten hits to kill. Remember, no throwing, stabbing, or hits to the face,” you explained, words tumbling out quickly. Clearly, this was a game you enjoyed immensely. “You can come out any time after five minutes after you get back to your base. Ready, set, go!”

The four kids dashed off towards their snow fort, kicking up snow as they went, with Steve close on their heels. While they were busy planning and scheming how best to bring you down and win the day, you busied yourself with the creation of an absurd amount of snowballs. You'd long-since mastered the art of packing the perfect snowball, one firm enough to stay together, yet loose enough to burst on impact, and just the right size to fit in the hand and fly. Truthfully, you still had several piles of icy ammo, but with Steve given the ability to block your shots you would need a great deal more if you hoped to be victorious.

Either you completely zoned out (a highly probable scenario), or the kids miscounted time (also perfectly likely), but you were caught completely off-guard by a combined scream of “Charge!” from the other side of the yard. Your surprise didn't last long as you recovered your composure and popped out from behind your snow hills, launching a volley of snowballs. Unfortunately, Steve was far better at wielding his shield than you expected. He managed to block most of your shots, but a lucky break allowed you to peg Maria once, and then catch Steve twice when he moved to cover her from further assault.

“Try and stay behind me,” Steve told his little group, not quite in time to prevent you from landing a hit on Vanessa.

You redoubled your efforts as they approached, Steve's skill working in their favor. In a nearly miraculous couple of shots, just as Jay and Kinzie manage to touch the base of your perch, you catch Maria and Vanessa in quick succession, forcing them to retreat. Steve trudges after them, in a move that isn't surprising to you in the least. You don't bother to attack them on their way back, other than a potshot at Steve while his back is turned to knock him down to one hit left, instead waiting until the two girls sprint back to Steve. It doesn't escape you that Steve didn't touch base, as you thought he wouldn't, meaning his hit count remained. But the trio proved far harder to hit on their second run, in no small part due to the fact that Steve had learned about your tactic of tossing the snowballs over his head. He'd taken a half-crouch stance with the plastic shield raised partially above him, Maria and Vanessa sticking close behind him. While this left his legs an open target, from your angle they were nearly impossible to hit. Shortly, they too reached the safety of the bottom of your mountain.

“Accursed wretches, begone from here, lest I bring unto you ruin!” you growled, looking down at the ragtag group.

Jay was the first to respond, shaking his sword at you. “Not until you give us back Santa!”

“Let Mr. Claus go free, and we'll leave you alone. We can do this the peaceful way,” said Steve, pointing briefly at the plastic statue half-buried behind you. Silently, and completely out-of-character, you approved highly of the way he looked with his otherwise delicate jaw set firmly in determination and his hair tousled by all the running about. Perhaps not the most opportune time to notice this, but such was life, as they say. You'd simply remember it for later.

“I hardly believe you are in any position to threaten me, Captain. That which is in my possession is mine to keep,” you replied, theatrically blowing out a large breath to create a billowing cloud of steam.

“But you stole him!” shouted Jay at the exact moment that Maria yelled “Get 'er!”

The five charged towards you and you resumed tossing snowballs their way. You knew that you were basically done for at this point, not that you were ever planning on trying hard against kids, but for the sake of the little narrative you had going on, you refused to give up without a fight. Alas, your effort was, predictably, in vain. It didn't take the four kids long to blow right past Steve and reach you. In no time at all you found yourself surrounded, and upon the tenth blow, or somewhere around there as the children were most certainly not counting, you allowed yourself to fall and tumble down the snowbank melodramatically. Jay and Vanessa immediately threw down their toy weapons to start tugging on the plastic Santa, while Kinzie and Maria began to dig the statue out. Meanwhile, Steve clambered down in a hurry to check on you.

“Are you okay?” he asked, reaching out a hand to help you up.

You looked at him and debated on getting up right away. For being super cold, the snow was also quite comfortable. “Yeah. Got some snow in my boots though. I'll have to take them off when we go inside.”

“It could be another snake in your boot.” Your response was a deadpan stare, remembering all too well his latest prank. Yeah, you started it, but finding a realistic rubber snake in your shoes was not something you prepared for. “What ever happened to that thing anyway?”

“I'm saving it for later, hoping that you'll forget about it so I can use it on you. Or Bucky. If I play my cards right, I'll spook both of you at once and be there to see it.” A loud shout interrupted your train of thought, and you looked up to see the four children had finally freed the plastic Santa. Now you decided to stand up and brush as much of the snow off of yourself as you could. “Let's go help them put that thing away, find out how much longer until we can eat, and see if we can't sneak some cookies before tomorrow.”

Steve could only laugh quietly at that. It would seem that instead of being let out to watch the youngsters, you were basically forced outside as one.

***

A couple of hours later, during the period after dinner in which everyone just sort of hung around and talked, Steve noticed that once again you'd disappeared. You had been right next to him, empty plate in hand chatting away with your sister as he listened attentively to a story your grandfather was telling him about his time in the army. But now you were gone. He excused himself from the group politely, before seeing if he could locate you.

It didn't take him long. Steve found you sitting in front of the fire burning steadily in the fireplace, a blanket wrapped around your shoulders and your legs outstretched to warm your bare feet. “You sure do vanish an awful lot, you know.”

Startled, you jumped slightly. “I was still a little cold. Also I'm full and ready to take a nap,” you said with an apologetic smile. It wasn't your intention to just walk off, but you were so excited to be here that you were uncharacteristically quiet.

“You had two sandwiches and a mountain of potato salad. Even without the rest of what you ate, I'm surprised you're not in a food coma,” he replied. “Can I sit join you?”

Your answer was to stretch out an arm and motion him over.“I'd be sad if you didn't.” Steve made his way over and took a seat on the floor next to you. You wrapped your arm, and the blanket, around him, keeping him close. It took a little adjusting to make it wrap around you both, but you made it work. “It's not quite eggrolls and It's A Wonderful Life, but I hope you're having fun.”

When it became obvious that you weren't going to move your arm from around him, he reciprocated the gesture, winding a thin arm around your waist. “I am. It's a little strange, but it's nice too. And there's plenty of time for a movie marathon once we get back home.”

“If you're not too tired when we get back to the hotel, we can see if there's a good movie playing on the TV. There's gotta be one station with something decent on.”

A contented silence fell over the two of you, with the crackling of the fire and sounds of conversations, muted more by indifference rather than distance, in another room the only noise. After such a busy day, it was nice to simply sit and relax together. Thinking back on the day's events, there was something Steve wanted to bring up, but he couldn't quite find a way to say it directly. “Do you watch the kids every year?”

The question took you by surprise, but you rolled with it. “No. Last year was the first time. We hadn't gotten together much before that, so the last time before that, Maria was the only one, and she was two years old. The last time there were a ton of kids it was when I was young and all of us just had the run of it outside my grandpa's house. They like you a lot, you know.”

“That's nice to know,” he replied. Truthfully, he didn't have much experience with children, so it was a relief to know that he'd done an alright job of it. More than a little nervous, Steve said what was on his mind abruptly. “You'd make a good mother.”

Now that was downright unexpected, but it was surprisingly easy to pretend that the new warmth in your face was less from embarrassment and more from the fire in front of you. “That's a little ways away, yeah? But I, uh, I'm glad you think so.” You weren't even going to pretend that you hadn't thought about having kids, although you were in no rush. There was still plenty of time, you were still younger than your mom had been when she became pregnant with you. It was still something you turned over in your head, the idea that one day you'd have a family of your own. You leaned into him a little then, letting your head rest against him. “You'll make a good dad, but I feel like together we're gonna make some odd parents.”

Steve tried to look over at you, but it was hard with how you were leaning against him. “What do you mean?”

“Like, one day we're gonna get a phone call from one of our kids' principals, telling us to come pick up our kid because they got into a fight. We'll jet on over and she'll be sporting a shiner, just like you're always bringing home, and the principal will be all 'Blah, blah, blah, your kid was in a fight and we can't tolerate this behavior' but neither of us is going to care. Our little girl will tell us how the other kid, who's probably sitting there with a black eye of their own and a busted lip, was being mean to another student and so she stepped in. Principal Whoever is off blabbing about not tolerating violence and the first thing out of your mouth is 'I'm so proud of you. Let's go get ice cream'. I'll be forced to play bad cop because someone has to, but once we're out of the school, 'cause our daughter got suspended, I don't even bother asking as I drive to the best ice cream parlor in town. That's some TV level shenanigans and we'd totally do it anyway,” you explained, getting more than a little lost in the narrative.

Steve couldn't help but laugh a bit. Your imagination was a wonderful thing. “That's not so bad. You've gotten good at helping me when I come over all bruised.”

“I'd rather I didn't need to get good at that. But, yeah, I guess you're right. In the scheme of things, that wouldn't be too bad.”

Another lapse in conversation began, the two of you resting against one another. You were fighting off drowsiness, all the fun and merriment was taking it's toll. Any other time you might let yourself doze off, it wouldn't be the first time, but you still had to get back to the hotel. Briefly, you heard someone laughing nearby, perhaps in the next room, though you didn't pay much attention to it. If they were moving this way, they were probably heading home. You decided to wait until they were in the room to get up for goodbyes, you were reluctant to move from your spot. It wasn't often that you got to cuddle with Steve like this, so you planned to take full advantage of it.

No one entered the room, however, so you let it escape your mind. Or, it did until you were startled into motion by someone shouting “Kiss for the Vine!” just behind you. You yelped in surprise, but both you and Steve jumped before whipping your heads around to see who was disturbing the moment. Behind you stood Bucky, phone in hand, and your dad, holding a stick with a sprig of what you recognized as mistletoe over your heads.

“Dad? Are you serious?” you exclaimed, not quite believing your eyes.

At the exact same moment, Steve yelled “Bucky!”

The two conspirators shared a laugh at your expense. “Oh come on, honey. Your mom and I haven't gotten even one good photo of you two all day. This would make a great Christmas card next year,” your dad said, shaking the stick to remind you that it was still there.

“Mistletoe videos are super popular right now, you know that. I promised your dad a copy if he'd help me get one of you two, so let's get this show on the road!” Bucky chimed in.

“Nuh-uh, no way. I'm not gonna–” you started, determined to not play into their hands, but you were cut off abruptly by Steve taking your face into his delicate hands and kissing you. To say that it was unexpected would be an understatement, but after a moment of stunned inaction you returned the kiss with enthusiasm. To spite your father and Bucky, both of whom were now cheering, you brought the blanket up to shield you and Steve from their view.

And so went your Christmas Eve, more eventful than you could have predicted, but in what seemed to be the case for your time spent with your fiancé, you wouldn't change very much at all. The best part, however, was that this was only the first of many holidays spent is such wonderful company.


End file.
